Funding Process
In this section:
Our funding MANDATE
When we established the Stephen Lewis Foundation in March 2003, we hoped to provide support to a few innovative and terrifically hard-working projects in countries hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. We currently fund over 140 projects in 15 countries. In addition, we have expanded our mandate to include the vital group of grandmothers in Africa who are struggling with resilience and courage to support the ever-growing population of children orphaned by AIDS and nurture them into the future.
WHO WE FUND
Grassroots projects are the focus of the Stephen Lewis Foundation — providing resources to small, front-line HIV/AIDS groups that make tremendously effective use of comparatively small amounts of money. In unique instances, the Foundation funds larger undertakings where we are sure the funds are reaching a significant number of people at the community level.
We fund registered community-based organizations (CBOs) or non-governmental governments (NGOs) that have: a proven community track record; their own bank account or work with an accredited NGO that will facilitate funding on the organization’s behalf; a sound financial accounting system; a commitment to the principles of non-discrimination against all groups of people, with a particular commitment to women and people living with HIV and AIDS; and a functioning board, steering committee and/or leadership structure that includes women and people living with HIV and AIDS.
WHERE WE FUND
We fund initiatives exclusively in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in Southern and Eastern Africa, where the pandemic has hit hardest, with some of the highest HIV prevalence rates and among the highest numbers of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the world.
The 15 countries in which we fund projects are: Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
WHAT WE FUND
For women with HIV/AIDS, we fund grassroots initiatives which offer social support, bereavement counseling, HIV testing and counseling, home and hospital care visits, and grants/loans for small income-generating projects to help women living with HIV/AIDS to support their families. This concrete support includes provision of disinfectant, gloves, soap, clothing, sleeping mats and nutritious food, as well as drugs for opportunistic infections, skills training and community garden projects. For the neighbours, relatives and older women who are struggling to care for the ill and dying, we fund projects providing counseling and home-based care training.
We are helping orphans in every possible way from the payment of school fees and supplies, to support for their guardians, most often grandmothers and older teenagers. We help nourish the orphans through school gardens and school feeding programmes and fund projects that help these children cope with their grief and then work to build their self-sufficiency through vocational and life skills training. There is constant and focused attention on ensuring that girls are being supported in all of these endeavors.
Grandmothers single-handedly care for millions of children orphaned by AIDS, sometimes as many as ten to fifteen (or more) in one household. These magnificently courageous women bury their own children and then look after their orphan grandchildren, calling on astonishing reserves of love and emotional resilience. But they do so with almost no support or financial resources. We provide support for these grannies to mobilize themselves in groups where they can offer each other psychological support and grief counseling, in addition to providing the grandmothers with shelter, nutrition, income generation activities, small loans, and training. Many of the projects we fund supporting home-based care, schooling for orphans, and initiatives for people living with HIV/AIDS involve grandmothers in a way that is integral to the success of the project; our funding ensures that these grandmothers receive financial support and attention.
The Foundation supports projects that unite women, men and children living with HIV and AIDS. One of the most important objectives for associations of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) is to educate themselves and share information with the broader community on prevention, treatment, care and the elimination of stigma. We support them to provide nutritional support, home-based care, prevention workshops and assistance in accessing testing and treatment as well income generating activities.
OUr FUNDING PROCESS
The Foundation accepts project proposals on an ongoing basis. We consider every project thoroughly and move with urgency to visit each project being considered for funding. We do not fund a project until we have seen it and assessed its organizational and financial capacity, its effectiveness and its connection to the community in which it works. Each project we consider for funding is visited first by one of our experienced colleagues in Africa. If we decide to move ahead with funding, we sign an Agreement with the organization regarding the use of the funds and its reporting requirements, and we can then move the funds very quickly directly into the project’s bank accounts – it can reach them within 5-10 days without going through intermediaries or being subjected to further administrative costs.
We develop meaningful relationships with each project – both through our colleagues ‘on the ground’ and via email and telephone from Toronto. We work hard to maintain regular contact so that we know what is happening and how we can assist when additional support (financial, capacity building, etc.) is needed. Our network of colleagues travel regularly throughout the 15 countries in which we fund to meet with projects and assess their ongoing successes and challenges – providing thoughtful feedback and providing us with reports, stories and guidance for further funding.
It is a serious and involved process – and it works powerfully well.
SIZE OF OUR GRANTS
Our first time grants are generally between US $15-35,000 per project. As we develop a relationship with projects, the organizations are considered for more significant funds in the range of US $40,000 - $100,000. A renewal grant is given to those organizations which have the capacity to expand and deepen their work. Each renewal grant depends on a positive mid and/or final- assessment from one of our Africa-based consultants. We regularly renew grants (at present, the renewal rate is at 90%) and we attribute this to our comprehensive assessment of projects before the initial decision to fund them is made.
All of the projects inspire us with their resourcefulness, professionalism and dedication – bringing hope and dignity to the lives of those they reach. As the work of these grassroots organizations gains momentum, the Foundation intends to be there to support projects into the future. We are now entering into multi-year agreements with those projects with whom we’ve developed long-lasting relationships, to enable them to plan more effectively with a secure funding base. The Foundation has a strong commitment to funding a portion of the organizations' core operating costs (which can include rent, infrastructure costs such as computers, and salaries). This kind of funding is hard to secure – many donors fund projects but not the operating costs of an organization. We know that without salaried staff, good people and sound systems to run good programmes, organizations are hampered in their ability to deliver.